Unless you live in a cave or just intensely dislike the sport of golf, you are fully aware of the issues involving professional golf going on in the world.
The PGA Tour, as well as the DP World Tour (European Tour) have been the two major governing organizations for sometime now, with the North American-based PGA Tour the ultimate, controlling tour in professional golf.
There has been talk – and in some cases – some efforts to launch competitive tours of golf. None have ever really taken hold until earlier this year when the LIV Golf Tour – a Saudi funded organization – launched.
Boasting a season of just eight events spread from June to October around the world, LIV is offering $25 million in purses for every event, with $4 million to the winner.
The eighth and final event will be the championship, with the first player bringing home $18 million. Second place takes home $8 million and third winning $4 million.
The tournaments are only 54 holes as opposed to the 72 holes that make up a PGA Tour event. There is also a team component to every LIV event with even more mounds of cash thrown at the winning team. The events are also played in a shotgun start, something usually saved for charity golf tournaments.
There were insane signing bonuses, and it was established as a threat/rival to the PGA Tour. The money grab saw some players jump ship immediately, while others have left the PGA Tour as recently as this week after the FedEx playoffs concluded.
The PGA Tour had threatened action against players who left the PGA Tour once news started to leak about LIV becoming official, and once players started leaving, they enforced it.
The PGA Tour was upfront about what would happen to players that defected to LIV, and they have lived up to the promises.
Players that left were banned from returning to the PGA Tour and can’t accumulate FedEx points. They also at this time can’t earn any world ranking points and will not be allowed to play either the Ryder Cup or the President’s Cup.
The big unknown is if the LIV players are going to be able to compete in the four majors next year. This year both the USGA with the U.S. Open and Royal and Ancient with the Open Championships allowed players that had qualified for the tournaments to play. It was the safe play by both organizations.
Next year? I feel confident The Masters and the PGA will be off-limits to the LIV members, with the others to likely follow suit.
The PGA Tour has also responded with upping purses and joined forces with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy with a season within a season of 15 matches with six teams of three golfers.
The golfers will compete in a tech infused venue (think simulators) and will be played on Monday nights to complement the Tour, with the prize money rumored to be at least $20 million per event.
The matches will be set in stadium type settings, bringing in a load of fans.
The move sent the LIV members into a tizzy, claiming the PGA Tour is copying the LIV game plan. McIlroy went on record that the TGL has been in the works for at least two years, so who is to know for sure.
What side do I land on here?
Overall, I can see both sides. LIV is offering obscene amounts of money to make the jump and if money is your top priority, then you have every right to take the truckloads of cash.
But here is my flipside to leaving – If you bolt the PGA Tour, then you must accept the ramifications. Just as the players have the right to take the Saudi money, the PGA Tour has the right to ban the players if they choose LIV.
Playing on the PGA Tour is a privilege, not a right. You made the choice to leave, deal with it. There are certainly some issues that could have been dealt with differently and quelled some of the animosity.
I fully believe the reason that the LIV people made sizeable offers to both Jack Nicklaus and then Tiger Woods was to be the figurehead of their group. Both turned down the offers and they were left with Greg Norman. Jack and Tiger are incredibly well liked, but not Norman.
Norman has been at odds with the PGA for years and to be honest, he is a pompous ass. That set a horrible tone to start and put the PGA Tour on the defense, and they have the leverage to fight back and hit hard.
Second, if the players had just been honest about their reasons for making the jump for the money, instead of making up lame reasons, it would have been easier to take.
Cameron Tringale and Harold Varner III were straight honest and Varner’s letter that was published this week was heartfelt and honest.
Others that said they were “trying to help grow the game of golf,” sound stupid and fake.
The one point few bring up is how many of the players that have made the jump are really missed by the PGA Tour. You basically have three types of players.
Young players that would have little to no chance to make this type of money on the PGA Tour. Second, you have a number of players that are on the downside of their careers and are not relevant any longer. Finally, there are a handful – and I mean just a handful of top players that are missed on the PGA Tour.
Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and Patrick Reed are drawing cards for the PGA Tour.
There is no doubt that money was the driving force for all these players. I still think Koepka was part of a package deal that got his brother Chase on to the LIV Tour. Chase was a fringe PGA Tour player, and if Brooks said he would come as long Chase was included then I would understand that.
Mickelson has so many off course issues and has not been playing well. If it helps him sleep at night to say that he was trying to make the PGA Tour change, then he has paid his dues enough to let him think we believe it. I just want to see him make enough money to make sure he gets everything in his life in order.
The one American player that has really made me angry is Reed. I rooted for the guy and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt with his issues on the Tour. Now he makes the jump, then files a defamation lawsuit against Brandel Chamblee and the Golf Channel.
Reed’s true colors have been completely exposed and brings into brighter light why players created the nickname “Table for one,” for Reed. There is no doubt he is the most “me-first” player in golf.
Then you have the international players like Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, Henrik Stenson, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, along with recent commitments from Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann, and Marc Leishman.
Smith’s departure will be felt in the PGA Tour, but his reasoning for joining LIV is sound. A much shorter season will allow him more time at home in Australia with his family.
Playing on the PGA Tour can keep you from your home for months at a time and when your home is a 19-hour plane flight away, it makes coming home for a few days not a viable option.
Of the rest of the internationals perhaps only Oosthuizen is still a regular threat on the PGA Tour. The rest are chasing the bag as they approach the end of their careers.
Last week Westwood started whining about the PGA Tour now copying the LIV plan. Come on Lee, you are still too young to be wearing diapers.
How about the court of public opinion?
At this point you have Norman taking on the duo of Woods and McIlroy representing the PGA Tour. Sorry Shark, talk as tough as you want, there is little to no chance you win this matchup.
Simply, Tiger still moves the needle in the golf world regardless of what you want to believe. Adding McIlroy to the mix only enhances the ticket, and McIlroy has not hesitated to throw shade continually at LIV.
The way things are headed right now it’s almost like LIV is turning into a tour largely made up of international players with some from America, while the PGA Tour is staying strong with American players with some very talented international players mixed in.
The events that may end up getting hurt the most are the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup, which would stink. But how cool if up from those ashes rose a PGA Tour vs. LIV matchup every two years.
Impossible? I think as we see right now, with the right money, anything is possible.
By Dennis Miller